Report: Westchester DA And JCOPE Chairwoman Under Her Own Ethics Investigation

Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore, who heads the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics, has found herself in her own ethics probe, the New York Post reported today.

The report claims that the county’s Department of Social Services is looking into whether DiFiore, a Democrat tapped by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year to head JCOPE, used her influence to her family’s live-in housekeeper food stamps, Medicaid benefits and cash assistance.

DiFiore is the chairwoman of JCOPE—the state agency that is tasked with investigating ethics breaches in state government.

Dhyalma Vazquez, a county anti-fraud investigator who also chairs the Yonkers Independence Party, alleged in an a June 30, 2010 e-mail to the DSS Comissioner that DiFiore’s housekeeper, Marina Buchanan, should not have received the benefits, the Post reported.

The Post states it obtained several leaked documents. Vazquez claimed that DiFiore, a Democrat, had Buchanan’s case file improperly reopened after the Yonkers branch of DSS denied benefits.

Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for DiFiore’s office, did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

County spokeswoman Donna Green would not comment on the Post story, she said, “even to confirm any of the particulars, because if somebody is a social service client, that’s a confidential piece of information. And law enforcement investigations, if one existed is also confidential.”